Screening of Cation Exchange Membranes for an Anthraquinone-Ferrocyanide Flow Battery

The disodium salt of 9,10-anthraquinone-2,7-disulphonic acid (2,7-AQDS) is an interesting platform for developing anthraquinone derivative negolytes for aqueous organic flow batteries. Recently, ammonium sulphate supporting electrolytes have been considered for improved stability and solubility. This work advances the 2,7-AQDS/ferrocyanide flow battery with an ammonium sulphate supporting electrolyte (pH 5) by studying the suitability of six commercially available cation exchange membranes: E-620, NR-212, FS-930, F-1075-PK, F-1850 and N-115. Cell cycling under galvanostatic regime plus potential hold was performed to determine coulombic efficiency, energy efficiency and accessible capacity for each membrane as well as capacity fade rate for three selected membranes under extended operation. Cell cycling under galvanostatic control only was carried out to observe transient membrane behavior alongside accessible capacity and apparent capacity fade rate. It was found that the capacity set by the limiting negolyte is consistent with 1.5 electrons per 2,7-AQDS molecule and that energy efficiency shows a simple direct relationship to membrane thickness, with one exception. Meanwhile, four membranes displayed similar apparent capacity fade rates at this laboratory scale irrespective of their thickness, with capacity loss explained in terms of crossover. The best overall performance was attained by the thinnest membranes, E-620 and NR-212.